Three cheers for the new Hasselblad X1D

The guessing on the “Game Changer” that had been announced by Hasselblad has been taken out for a week now – the cat is out of the bag. And it’s a big cat which many photographers have been hoping for. The new X1D-50c is a mirrorless system camera with a medium-format sensor, measuring 44×33 millimeters with 50 megapixels. The great technology was packed into a compact body and weighs about 800 grams.

The X1D was announced at a presentation by Hasselblad CEO Perry Oosting. He said that with the camera Victor Hasselblad’s long-cherished wish has come true as he had already planned building a handy, compact and robust camera for wildlife photographers at the beginning of his career.

The X1D has all of these qualities. It’s been milled from all-aluminum, which makes it weather-resistant. It has a touch display and the viewfinder image is displayed electronically. Along with the new camera the new X-mount, for which two special lenses have been manufactured so far, will also enter the race. The first one is a light wide-angle lens called XCD 45mm f/3.5. The second lens is the XCD 90f/3.3. The Hasselblad X-lenses have been equipped with a central shutter which allows flash synchronization within a shutter speed of 1/2000 seconds.

In case you can’t find the matching lens among the two existing ones, you can use the current twelve Hasselblad lenses of the H-series with the help of an optional adaptor on your camera. However, the presentation of a third X-lens has already been announced for the photokina, which will take place this September.

The price of the Hasselblad X1D is not quite a bargain, but it’s not daylight robbery for a device of such class and quality, either. You can buy it for 9,400 Euros and it will be sold as of August this year.